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Exploring the vastness of space isn't cheap, but it's becoming more accessible as the cost of satellites comes down slowly and data from telescopes is shared widely and freely. Citizen scientists can help advance astronomy in a variety of ways, donating time and/or money to projects that need more help. NASA's budget isn't exactly huge (compared to other parts of the national budget), so space scientists need all the help they can get. Here are just a few links on the wisdom of the crowd contributing to space exploration.

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The universe is filled with unsolved mysteries and phenomena that we haven't quite figured out how to explain. It's these unanswered questions that drive science and technology forward as people try to work out how the universe operates -- and we need to build more precise and accurate instruments in order to even attempt to determine what's really going on. Here are just a few curiosities in the universe that are worth exploring a bit more.

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The nature of black holes has been debated for years, as astronomers and physicists are puzzled by how these objects absorb matter/energy without violating agree-upon rules of the universe. Maybe black holes don't exist the way we thought they did? Or perhaps the laws of physics aren't quite right yet? (Or both!) Here are just a few links on these mysterious entities that are thankfully very far away.

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Insect evolution is pretty amazing in general, but there are a few examples that are almost incredible. For example, people have discovered enormous ant colonies, wasps that can create zombies, and the ways that insects exhibit a collective intelligence that looks surprisingly smarter than any individual bug. Considering that insects, by weight and numbers, surpass humans by at least an order of magnitude, we might want to keep an eye on these invertebrates. Here are just a few more fascinating examples of awesome insect abilities.

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Every so often, it's good to take a look up into the sky and think about how small our troubles are -- compared to the size of the universe. Our little planet orbits a second (or maybe third) generation star, burning up heavier elements from previous stars that no longer exist. As Carl Sagan famously said, "We're made of star stuff." Check out some of these links about our solar system.

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The idea of mining asteroids has been around for quite some time, but only recently has it been considered a somewhat practical (and possibly profitable) venture. It's possible that private space companies could make it to an asteroid before NASA gets to one, and it'll be interesting to see what happens if asteroid mining operations succeed in bringing back significant quantities of valuable metals. But we're not quite there yet. Here are just a few links on the baby steps we might need to take to start playing with asteroids.

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Artificial satellites are usually expensive instruments that have a limited useful life. Voyager 1 is still going, though, and it's just about to cross into interstellar space. But normally, spacecraft don't have missions that last over three decades. Here are a few space-based telescopes that have either retired recently or are about to wind down.

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Crowdfunding and crowdsourcing has been a popular area of experimentation for the last few years, but people still haven't quite figured out how best to work a crowd. Some projects are insanely successful. Other projects seem to fall far short of their goals. Here are just a few examples of projects that could use some help.

We've discovered thousands of exoplanets beyond our solar system, and some of them are even in the "Goldilocks zone" where liquid water could possibly exist. Some astronomers think life could be abundant in the universe, but there's not that much hard evidence (yet!). Here are just a few astronomical discoveries that might encourage researchers to look for signs of life a bit more carefully.

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There are about 700 confirmed exoplanets that astronomers have indirectly observed. The Kepler Space Telescope has gathered a vast amount of data, and it suggests that there are probably planets orbiting nearly every star. Now that we know about all these planets, it's fun to speculate about how much life could exist on them. So here are just a few links for those of you who want to know where our alien neighbors might be.